Hindi movie reviews from an American moviegoer's perspective

Tag Archives: Padman

In its debut weekend, Pad Man finished second to Padmaavat at the North American box office. From February 9-11, 2018, Pad Man earned $689,272 from 152 theaters ($4,535 average), according to Bollywood Hungama*. Kumar’s recent releases have opened within a very narrow range of totals, from Toilet‘s $670,447 on the low end to Airlift‘s $815,933 on the high end. Pad Man‘s performance fits right within that range, so it appears Padmaavat had no discernible effect on Pad Man‘s opening weekend total.

The same applies in the other direction, too, as three-week-old Padmaavat out-earned Kumar’s brand new release. Granted, Padmaavat had a 126-screen advantage and inflated 3D prices for some tickets. Still, its enduring popularity is impressive. Over the weekend, Padmaavat earned $957,302 from 278 theaters ($3,444 average), bringing its total earnings to $10,556,813 — enough to squeak it past PK‘s $10,550,569 total into second place all time for Bollywood movies in North America. LiveMint has an interesting breakdown of where the money Padmaavat has earned so far has gone and how much of it is really profit after recovering costs.

[Update:Box Office Mojo reports weekend earnings of $740,326 from 152 theaters ($4,871 average) for Pad Man, and $1,039,904 from 282 theaters ($3,688 average) for Padmaavat, with total earnings of $10,638,033.]

*Bollywood Hungama routinely counts Canadian theaters twice in its weekly reporting, at least for a movie’s first two weekends of release. When possible, I try to verify the correct theater count with other sources, like Box Office Mojo. The above figures represent what I believe to be the actual theater counts. Bollywood Hungama’s reporting puts Pad Man in 173 theaters (making for a $3,984 per-screen average).